The 1901 Pan American Medals of Hermon MacNeil. Or where the heck has Weiss been for the last year?
Weiss
Posts: 9,942 ✭✭✭✭✭
Any of you lot who cares (and I get that few probably do 
) might have noticed I've been absent on the CU forums for the last 8 or 10 months. If you're interested, I'll tell you why...
Any time we mention the 1901 Pan American medals by Hermon Atkins MacNeil (Standing Liberty Quarter) on this forum, the consensus seems to be overwhelmingly positive. But if you've tried to acquire them, you know that they are very difficult to find. Surviving pops seem to be a guessing game, with some sources offering incredibly small numbers. Guesses as to how many were made and how many exist vary widely from thousands to hundreds to a handful. In short: There seem to be lots of questions but few answers about these pieces.
Four years ago give or take, and inspired by the census created for the Lesher dollars (lesherdollars.com), I kicked around the idea of logging examples of the enigmatic MacNeil pieces. Before I knew it, I had done just that: I had a census going.
For several years I've scoured the internet and auction listings, tracking examples and adding them to a spreadsheet. The more examples I added, the more details I included. Metal, name, source, sale price, slabbed or raw, condition, etc.
Along the way, I visited museum websites, websites devoted to medals. I got resources and read the information available about them from Baxter, Marquese, etc. and I took notes on what I had observed. After a couple of years, new examples appeared less and less frequently in my searches. But the notes I made grew and, again before I knew it, I had an outline for an article. And I started to form some observations. Among them: It's not just perception. These medals are really quite scarce. Also, few have been graded. And many of them would probably grade details if they were submitted.
The more I compiled, the more nagging questions kept emerging. If over 3,000 of these medals had been issued, why are they so hard to find? Are they really just in strong hands? Had they been melted or destroyed? Are they all overseas? Or is it possible they weren't issued in numbers as large as previously thought? Raw numbers are great for accountants. But I found these numbers made much more sense given context: The availability of these pieces compared to the medals from the expos that bookended it--the Columbian Expo before it and the St. Louis expo a few years later. That comparison really emphasized and defined their scarcity. Especially when you consider all of these pieces were made by the most important coin designers of the early 20th century: Barber, Saint-Gaudens, Weinman, MacNeil.
Anyway, I'm trying to tell a story here.
Middle of last year I had a rough draft of the article on the Pan American medals. And I was getting ready to put it up here on the forum and I realized that a 15-page diatribe about these pieces was probably too much. So I reached out to a respected journal of coin collecting (let's call them The Snumismatist) to ask if they might be interested. And it seemed they were. So late 2022 I sent them an edited copy with all the footnotes, end notes, sources, etc. I was right proud of it. And they seemed to like the idea.
But then they said they were backlogged and that it would take a few months to catch up 
Fine, after the start of the year.
About that time, I, like I'm sure many of us, realized that we kept seeing the same questions from new collectors here on CU and on other venues. That seemed especially true for bullion buyers. My son had put out some videos on YouTube a few years back and one went viral, eventually getting nearly 4 million views. So after the first of the year in the dead of winter, when I had a little down time, I followed my son's lead and made a few videos on the basics of bullion for new buyers, some of the ways that bullion crosses over into more traditional coin collections, etc. Just for the sake of keeping myself busy, I never thought they'd be seen by anyone.
But the videos actually kind of took off. They went from 10 views to 50 views to a few hundred views. And the more videos I released, the more people watched them.
Spring was coming, so I reached back out to The Snumismatist and was told...it would be several more months. In the mean time I kept myself busy with videos. A few videos turned into a dozen, then two dozen.
Finally in June I reached back out to The Snumismatist.
And they declined the article.
It was apparently too long. And they didn't understand why I'd "dedicated valuable space to other coin designers".
So I did what any rational person would do. I thanked them for their time.
Then I built a website from scratch to share the census and my findings with the numismatic community. And I made what I hoped would be a definitive 2-part video series on these pieces. The second of which premiers tonight (Friday, November 3rd) on my YouTube channel that has grown to over a thousand subscribers, 50 videos, and over 60,000 views since this spring.
You'll find the website at www.panamcensus.com
And you'll find the videos on YouTube, where I'm known as WhyteCross (a translation of my name).
https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLebJigXP2OH_4UmDOMJHkvEO6aCAkGiTP
And now you know where I've been 
--Severian the Lame
Comments
So... where have you been?
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
Melty was one of the few people who I told about this project
--Severian the Lame
I will absolutely watch the video and check out your link. Also, I will dig out my own example of this medal with its original case and give you the details for it, but that might not happen tonight.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Yep. It's been fun to check in & out of your stacking videos too. You've stumbled on some pretty neat bullion this past year. Looking forward to the next.
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
@Weiss said: Any time we mention the 1901 Pan American "medals" by Hermon Atkins MacNeil
When you say "medals" are you meaning that MacNeil issued more than the medal design we are all familiar with, that there are other types he designed that I'm not aware of??
BTW, here's my example.
I admire your tenacity.
Medals is kind of plural for the number made. Or you can look at it as bronze, silver, gilt, and gold.
Yep, your example was observed and added last year, originally via coinbooks.org and then via Stacks sale 03-24-21.
But the notes indicate it was raw at the time. Nice grade now and nice example!
--Severian the Lame
By the way, I purchased a copy of 100 Years of American Medallic Art from the John E. Marqusee Collection at the time of issue around three decades ago. If I recall correctly, these books were issued in very limited numbers. I still have my copy and it has been one of the books I have read and admired numerous times over the years.
I believe this has been shared with you previously, but my medal came with the original box of issue.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
A beautiful example, @TomB and a great original box.
Your medal was "officially" observed and added to the census just about a year ago
--Severian the Lame
I didn't realize that you were the one I been talking to by email and sending you the pics of my medals. I should have put 2 & 2 together. Gary
--Severian the Lame
Thank you and yes, I realized it was already in the census since I shared images with you previously. The little sticker inside the box with the handwritten note came with it when I purchased the medal, but we all know that was not factory original!
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Nice video. What do you think about unawarded medals? I have seen 1.
Thanks! And thanks for being one of the guinea pigs for the website!
If I didn't make it clear: That was part II of the 2-part video series. Take a look at the first video if you haven't already.
And I'm not sure what to make of the unawarded pieces. I saw a couple of references to them. I wonder if they are die trials or overruns of some kind?
--Severian the Lame
If you would like to broaden your search and take on a truly esoteric medal that will be tough as nails to track, perhaps you would like to hunt down these Brenner (Victor David Brenner of Lincoln cent fame) Lake George Regatta medals issued in the same time period of the 1901 PAN and 1904 medals. They are really scarce and come in solid gold, silver and bronze. I own one of each. The gold and silver examples are from 1902 and 1904 while the copper example I have has no date-
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
I realize I am all over the place with respect to your thread here, and I apologize for it, but you might never have seen one of these before. It is a heavy parchment about 14x18 inches with a foil seal placed in the center bottom. As you will see, it is from the 1901 PAN and was awarded with a silver medal. unfortunately, I don't have the medal.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
That's awesome, @TomB ! That's an example of an award diploma from the exhibition. One hypothesis I put forward about the disparity between the number of winners and the number of medals still in existence is that "awarded doesn't equal minted". In other words, it seems likely that there were lots of people who "won" a gold, silver, or bronze at the exhibition and were given a diploma like yours, but for reasons unknown never received the physical medal equivalent. I even suggest a few reasons why the corresponding medals might not have reached the winners.
I talk about the diplomas in volume I of the series at about the 18:00 mark, and show one held by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for a gold medal awarded to artist Thomas Eakins.
My research has turned up very few diplomas. That's something really special.
--Severian the Lame
Thank you. I had actually been listening/watching your part one video as I posted the response with the silver award certificate and then thought "D'oh!" since if I had waited until the end of the video I would have known you had a theory and an image of a different award.
Your speaking voice is quite clear and easy to listen to in the video, which makes it quite professional.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Aww. Thank you.
--Severian the Lame
https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=THD19011130-01.2.34&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN|txCO|txTA--------0------
Apparently not all of the award winners ordered a medal to go with their award.
@brokecollector great find! I really enjoy this thread.
Great Stuff. I thought you were likely busy managing your real estate empire.
This may be one on ebay. Poor condition.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
There is one currently on ebay in pretty rough condition.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/235936723241?_trkparms=amclksrc=ITM&aid=777008&algo=PERSONAL.TOPIC&ao=1&asc=20240723115851&meid=807df8e4256848f2ba0d972f4fec080c&pid=101952&rk=1&rkt=1&mehot=none&itm=235936723241&pmt=0&noa=1&pg=4375194&algv=WatchlistVariantWithMLR_BP&_trksid=p4375194.c101952.m162921&_trkparms=parentrq:c4345c1e1940aab07d12c298fffff0d8|pageci:50d909e6-e102-11ef-b71c-3ac6148392fb|iid:1|vlpname:vlp_homepage
That is awesome! This was one of the scenarios I'd hypothesized. But I'd never seen it actually addressed. Really appreciate this, @brokecollector !
--Severian the Lame
Fabulous post!
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson